Truck firm exec indicted, may tell all about bribes

The operating manager of a former Chicago trucking business has been charged with paying thousands of dollars in bribes and campaign contributions in order to remain among the biggest benefactors of the city's scandal-scarred Hired Truck Program, federal authorities said Friday.

After he was caught on tape earlier this month making incriminating comments to a former city employee working undercover for the government, Joseph S. Ignoffo is himself now cooperating in the ongoing federal probe, according to court records.

Ignoffo, 42, of Niles, was released on his recognizance after making an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Friday on mail fraud and bribery charges.

As the Hired Truck investigation continues to pick up steam, Ignoffo was the second defendant in as many days and seventh overall to be charged in the probe of payoffs in the city's outsourcing of truck work to private contractors.

Ignoffo Trucking Co. was ousted from Hired Truck in February, a month after the federal investigation became public, but city officials never explained why.

According to the charges, Ignoffo Trucking was the No. 1 recipient of Hired Truck funds citywide in 2001, with almost $1.08 million. Over the next two years, the company pulled in almost another $900,000, prosecutors said.

Ignoffo's lawyer, George Collins, declined to confirm that his client is cooperating with authorities or whether he intends to plead guilty to the charges.

The charges, unsealed Friday, alleged that between 1998 and 2003, Ignoffo typically passed on bribes of $500 in the summer and $1,000 around Christmas to a city employee who acted as a bagman for Donald Tomczak, the former first deputy commissioner of the city's Water Department who was arrested Thursday.

Tomczak's charges disclosed that Ignoffo, referred to in that document as "Cooperating Witness-B," was arrested on Oct. 15 and signed a written agreement to cooperate with authorities. On the same day, Ignoffo admitted to investigators that he provided cash in envelopes, gift certificates and campaign contributions "principally for the benefit of Tomczak," according to those charges.

The former bagman for Tomczak, who is cooperating in the probe, told authorities that he solicited campaign contributions on Tomczak's behalf for various political candidates, including "Candidate A," a relative of Tomczak.

Tomczak's son, Will County State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak, who is in the midst of a heated re-election campaign, donated to a Joliet charity about $20,000 that his campaign had received from Hired Truck firms after questions had been raised about the contributions earlier this year.

According to the charges unsealed Friday, Ignoffo and his trucking firm contributed $2,500 to the candidate between 1999 and 2003, including a $1,000 contribution on Oct. 30, 2002.

Public campaign records show that Ignoffo and the trucking company contributed $2,500 to Citizens for Jeff Tomczak, including a $1,000 donation on Oct. 30, 2002.

According to the charges, Donald Tomczak's onetime bagman wore a hidden recorder for authorities as he taped two conversations with Ignoffo earlier this month.

The former city employee, feigning concern over how Ignoffo would answer queries from federal investigators, pressed Ignoffo at one point on how he would explain the campaign contributions to Donald Tomczak's relative for an election unconnected to Chicago.

He quoted Ignoffo as saying there was "never no coercion. That's what we have to stick with."

The charges also revealed that Ignoffo had provided cash payments to another city official, identified only as "Hired Truck Program Official 1."

Court records make it clear that is a reference to Angelo Torres, the former director of the Hired Truck Program who was arrested on Jan. 25 on charges of pocketing several thousand dollars in bribes. Ignoffo's charges said Official 1 was arrested on Jan. 25 for soliciting cash payments.

A copy of Official 1's desk calendar for January 2004, obtained by federal investigators, shows a listing of eight names, including "Ignoffo," and a number by each name, the charges revealed. Next to Ignoffo's name was the number "150," authorities said.

Operators of two of the trucking companies listed on the calendar have admitted that the figures reflect cash gifts given to Official 1 during the Christmas season in 2003, the charges alleged.

In June the city sued Ignoffo Trucking in Cook County Circuit Court for allegedly failing to let the city conduct a routine tax audit. The company refused to turn over its books and records, said a spokeswoman for the city Department of Revenue.

Over the years the company entered into controversial lease agreements on trucks it operated. In 1995 it leased two trucks from John Spina Jr., a one-time city Streets and Sanitation Department employee who was arrested in 1993 on weapons charges.

Spina's brother, Chris, was being paid $30 an hour by the city while he was the personal chauffeur of organized crime boss Joseph Lombardo, a city investigation found in 1993.

The company has gone out of business, and its 13 trucks have been sold off, Collins said.

Arrests in the Hired Truck scandal

Seven people have been arrested since January in the growing federal investigation of payoffs in the city's outsourcing of truck work.

HIRED TRUCK PROGRAM

Angelo Torres, the former head of the program, is charged with pocketing thousands of dollars in bribes to steer city business to a truck owner.TRANSPORTATION DEPTARTMENT

Nick LoCoco, a former general foreman, is accused of making $90,000 a year by secretly owning a truck that did work in the program.

John Boyle, a former department engineer, is charged with bribery and mail fraud.WATER DEPARTMENT

Donald Tomczak, former first deputy commissioner, is accused of squeezing bribes and campaign contributions from truck company owners.

Gerald Wesolowski, ex-director of administration, is charged with bribery and mail fraud.TRUCKING FIRMS